Genesis 18

Bargaining with God is very common; it's one of humanity's favorite pastimes.  It's not that often, though, that God haggles back.

Why would he?  After all, he already knows what's going to happen from his vantage point outside time and space.  How could an old man in the desert possibly change God's mind?  And if Abraham couldn't change God's mind, what was God playing at?  Why make Abraham and untold millions of readers of Genesis 18 think that he was relenting?

This runs up against some very difficult issues of free will, open theism, determinism, and lots of other isms that all try to provide an answer to the question of what was really going on between Abraham and God.  I don't know how man's freedom to act and God's sovereignty fit together; I just know that the Bible teaches both.  I'm interested in what this story tells us of Abraham.

He's become a man to whom God speaks as a friend.  God's rhetorical question, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do ...?" indicates a level of intimacy and, yes, friendship.  It wasn't a relationship between equals by any means, but it was a personal relationship, between two personal beings.

In many ways, it seems like a relationship between father and son.  God is showing Abraham what he will do because, as he says, Abraham will become a great nation.  That nation will be God's representatives on the earth; he will give it a measure of his authority, and will be expect it to be about his business.  Abraham does this here.  God cares about people, even sinners, and so Abraham does as well.

In addition, Abraham cares for God and his reputation among the nations.  He is concerned that God, who he knows to be just and good, not be seen as unjust in the eyes of others.  And so from these twin motivations -- love for man and love for God -- he haggles like a champ.  And in the process, he becomes more the man that God intends him to be.

I have a feeling that God was proud of Abraham that day.